While all parents are proud of their kids, and you hear all the time about miracle babies, even experts in these sorts of things are in awe of the odds overcome by my twins, Jake and Josh.

They were born 17 weeks too soon, at only 23 weeks - what's known as "the brink of viability;" any earlier and doctors wouldn't have tried saving them. Even then, complications in the delivery room prompted the doctor to ask whether they should "keep trying" to save the first baby, the one who's water bag had broken two nights earlier, while I was covering a Mavericks playoff game. Minutes later, the doctor asked the same question about the second baby. "Hell yes," I said each time.

Each boy weighed 1 pounds, 2 ounces; less than some soda bottles. They were the same size as Beanie Babies, fragile and translucent as a baby bird.

Such extreme prematurity is rarely survived by one child, much less a pair of twins. It's rare still when they're white males. Even if they lived, what kind of life could they expect? Problems with brains, lungs and eyes are more common than not for anyone entering the world with those organs so underdeveloped in the womb.

The boys arrived so early we didn't even have names for them.

Jake and Josh not only survived, they thrived. Sure, it took about seven months and three surgeries each to leave the hospital, and it took years before they ate on their own, getting nourished instead through feeding tubes. But if you look at them now, you'd never know it. (Our oldest son, Zac, was a month premature. Fortunately, he arrived developed enough not to ever spend a minute in the NICU. He was 4 when the twins were born, and it was his Beanie Babies - gifts to his newborn brothers - that provided the unforgettable size comparison.)

Our gratitude is incalculable. We try giving back through our involvement with the March of Dimes, but for all our fundraising and awareness efforts, we feel as if we've come out on the winning end there, too. (Case in point: Jake, Josh and Zac got to design the paint scheme on the NASCAR that Denny Hamlin raced at Texas Motor Speedway in 2011. Repeat: They designed an actual NASCAR.)